Sunday, February 27, 2005

The right photo for a change...

Family members of murder victims stand and applaud, Saturday at Wichita City Hall in Wichita, Kan., as Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams announces the arrest of a man they believe is the notorious BTK serial killer.

Just to let you know that on March 20th at 6:30 p.m. the show On Assignment will be aired. The topic will be Victims No More. The episode will talk about the organization which I have become invoved with AFPAD. You can review the website and if you click on testimonies you will see stories from myself and John.

Having a t.v. crew in the house was a little unnerving expecially when they decide to redecorate my living room ! At least it was for a wonderful cause. I hope this show reaches many families that will come forward and join us. The other good news is that I, along with Ann Davidson director of the West Island Community Resource Centre and a couple of other willing families will now have a West Island annex group to AFPAD here in Pointe Claire reaching out to familes from the West Island and Montreal area.

And the bigger news, it that talking about violence against women and Kelly-Anne's story has helped three women make decisons in their lives to get out of their situations and seek help.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Some good news:excerpt from the Canadian federal budgetDate: Feb 23, 2005

The Victims of Crime Initiative aims to increase the confidence of victims in the criminal justice system by raising awareness of the needs of victims among criminal justice system personnel and the public; bringing the perspectives of victims to the development of legislation and policy; increasing awareness of available services and assistance among victims and their families; and facilitating the provision of services and assistance to victims by third parties. Budget 2005 renews the Victims of Crime Initiative on an ongoing basis and provides funding of $25 million over the next five years.

In an order issued this week, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson found there was enough evidence to support the conclusion that Key -- who has not been seen in more than seven years -- was no longer alive, without having to go through other legal proceedings, said Woody Vann, the attorney who is representing Key's family. The family had requested an official ruling that Key, who disappeared from downtown Carrboro on Dec. 1, 1997, was legally dead.

Andrew Douglas Dalzell, 28, is charged with her murder, but the case against him might not go forward. An Orange County judge ruled in January that Dalzell's confession was illegally obtained by the Carrboro Police Department after they arrested him for stealing some items from a hobby store.

Hudson's order reflected the opinion of Carrboro's police chief, Carolyn Hutchison, and Orange County's district attorney, Carl Fox, that Key was the victim of a homicide and that Dalzell had confessed to killing her, Vann said. Hutchison and Fox both wrote letters to Vann about their beliefs to present in the request for the declaration of death.

The family requested that Key be declared dead as a form of closure, Vann said.

"There's very little business to take care of," he said. "This was more personal than business."

If the murder case against Dalzell does go forward, Hudson's order could be used in the criminal proceedings against him to show that Key is dead, although that's not the reason the family requested the order, Vann said.

"Theoretically the district attorney could bring it in," he said. "There are a number of cases that go forward without a body. If it got to the point where the appellate court overturns the trial court and they decide to try him, that's one less thing a jury has to worry about."

Fox filed a notice of appeal after Barber made his ruling to throw out Dalzell's confession, but Fox had no comment Wednesday when asked if the actual appeal had been or would be submitted to the N.C. Court of Appeals.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Terry Roth was a close friend of Theresa and he sent me the following comments about my letter to IVAC:

John - let me offer some inputI take it that there has been some decision rendered that this letter addresses- and you wish to reverse that decision.The letter is very factual except that the tone is very emotional, and may render the reader to detect that it was written with some rage....for instance when you say "....with the assistance of the Surete du Quebec,shows none of these benchmarks of professionalism" you are actually insulting them - and they won't feel as compelled to help you or even consider what you write if they feel that Words like "snail's pace" are meant for everyday speech, not a letter to an organization. You could say that it took an inordinate amount of time or you waited many months, etc... Also when you say "there is no evidence whatsoever that Theresa Allore was at aparty involving drugs. I would like to know exactly what party you are referringto." I understand what you are saying but it reads like you are shouting at them.John, you are writing to ask them to reconsider based on some evidence and/or facts that you want them to be made aware of...The tone of anger will turn themoff - not give them the feeling to cooperate....trust me ....there is truth tothe saying "you can get more bees with honey rather than vinegar"Sandy Roth

To which I replied:

Hum... guess you wouldn't want to see my last email where I told IVAC to go fuckthemselves. JJA

Terry's response:

John, I can well understand your anger in this thing...it has been yearsof bungling and back and forth and incompetence and frustration...

I believe however that the anger should be directed to the Surete andtheir so-called "investigators", and not so much these people....

People don't take kindly to being told that their organization isincompetent and useless. We know they are but these people have adifferent motivation in their lives than you do. They are not guided bythe loss of a sibling and the pain and anguish that comes with notknowing what happened and worse-yet, that the person responsible isstill out there running around free and unpunished.

Their motivation is driven by positive results to their "clients". NowI don't know what transpired between you and them but judging by a 'fuckyou' email you sent, it probebly went the way of the NHL hockeynegotiations.

John, you achieved close to the impossible - you were able to get themto re-open the case 2 years ago...and since then there has been activityaround that. There have been people involved and correspondence andinterviews and articles....alot more than in the years 1979 to 2002!You got that by presenting facts and remaining level-headed andpersevering and on the course. Writing this way to an organization inthis way may turn them the other way - viewing you as an angry personand wanting to distance themselves.

But I understand your position completely - they just may not

Sandy

My reaction? I know, I may be cutting of my nose off to spite my face. But...

I really do not care if IVAC reverses their decision: what's hanging in the balance is a mere $600. I DO agree that some battles you don't fight so agressively. I work for government, and I certainly understand the value of "politique".

But this is one battle I do not wish to "win". I don't need bees. I would rather say what I mean than play games to influence a decision. Terry is completely right, and his words weigh heavy (he was one of my sister's closest friends); but - despite the destructive nature - I must speak what I feel needs to be said.

Monday, February 21, 2005

I made my claim (11 months ago) not for the $600, but to point out flaws in the system so that IVAC might be reformed for other victims.

There are others who are more diplomatic in their approach (http://www.afpad.ca/); I provide the hammer effect. It is an alternative to the normal political approach. Both approaches - together - will lead to reform.

Allow this letter to serve as my formal appeal to IVAC’s February 15th decision to dismiss the benefits claim in the matter of the death of my sister, Theresa Allore.

When victims call for assistance from their justice system they have a right to expect a high quality of effort from the agencies involved in providing this assistance. At the very least, we expect agencies (IVAC, Surete du Quebec) to cooperate, to share informed and consistent information, to be transparent in the methods of information collection and transference, and to provide a response in a timely fashion. IVAC’s response, with the assistance of the Surete du Quebec, shows none of these benchmarks of professionalism. Indeed, the basis of IVAC’s argument relies on speculation, innuendo and misinformation. Moreover, IVAC’s conclusions slander the victim, Theresa Allore, and further serve to traumatize and re-victimize the family - all of this achieved at a snail’s pace, eleven months since the initial claim was made.

The Commission is informed that there was indeed a reopening of the police investigation following some informations about a possible "suspect"; IF indeed the murder HYPOTHESIS had some merit. We are informed that the first part of the investigation in 1978 allowed the police to learn that the day before her disappearance, Theresa Allore was at a party with other students, that party involving the consumption of narcotics.

Having myself reviewed the police file, talked to original witnesses and talked with the original investigators, I can with absolute certainty tell you that there is no evidence whatsoever that Theresa Allore was at a party involving drugs. I would like to know exactly what party you are referring to. Is this the “acid party” involving three students at the Champlain college residence in Compton? If so, I can tell you that original investigators Leo Hamel, and former current Surete du Quebec investigators Michel Tanguay and Eric Latour don’t even believe that Theresa made it back to Compton. It is their hypothesis that Theresa was picked-up hitchhiking back to Compton and died shortly thereafter. So how could she be at a drug party if she was never in Compton?

I hereby formally request of IVAC and the Surete du Quebec the source of Mr. Beaulieu’s slanderous insinuation that Theresa Allore was somehow involved in a “drug party” the night before she died. If in fact there is such a document in the original file – in which case, the Surete du Quebec lied when they told me on November 4th, 2002 that I was seeing the complete police file on Theresa’s case – this evidence needs to be disclosed and we need to get to the bottom of what happened to my sister.

Andre Beaulieu states:

The police information is clear about the fact that, without a confession from THE "suspect" that he killed Theresa Allore, the CAUSE of the death of Theresa Allore would stay unknown. A sexual assault and/or a murder would stay a HYPOTHESIS, that being founded upon the conclusion of a Washington, D.C. profiler, Kim Rossmo that Theresa Allore was the victim of a serial killer.

Dr. Kim Rossmo is indeed a behavioral scientist now working for police agencies in the United States. Before coming to the states, Rossmo left Canada in frustration because he could not convince British Columbia police that there was a serial killer preying on young prostitutes in the East side of Vancouver. Dr. Rossmo’s ground-breaking work in geographic profiling in that case was the foundation of the arrest of Robert Pickton, currently awaiting trial for the murder of 15 Vancouver prostitutes, suspected of murdering over 70 women from Vancouver’s East side.

Now let us separate fact from fiction. Dr. Rossmo never concluded… “Theresa Allore was the victim of a serial killer.” Dr. Rossmo’s conclusion (email attached) was the geographic proximity of certain evidence in the deaths of Theresa Allore, Manon Dube and the murder of Louise Camirand warranted that these three cases be studied and investigated together for the possibility that they were linked – something the Surete du Quebec still has not done to this day.2

Finally, yes, “confession” is one method by which a case like this may be solved; the other two tools being the coming forward of a witness (not likely) and EVIDENCE (conveniently, Mr. Beaulieu – and the Surete du Quebec – omit this from their argument).

Currently, the Surete du Quebec is in possession of the wallet belonging to my sister in 1978 and they have tested it and established that it contains male DNA. It is true that said DNA may be from an original investigator or the person that found the wallet, but it also might be the DNA of “suspects” brought to the attention of the Surete du Quebec. The Surete has wasted valuable time and not bothered to test this DNA against all possible suspects in their investigation.

Further, I must add that there was valuable evidence in the cases of Theresa Allore, Manon Dube and Louise Camirand. Clothing – possibly containing DNA evidence – destroyed by Surete du Quebec investigators for unsolved cases.

M. Beaulieu goes to great lengths to dismiss the initial “declaration du coroner” that indicated “marques de strangulation” on the neck of Theresa Allore. M. Beaulieu argues that a day later, when pathologiste, Theresa Sourour concluded, “absence de trace evidence de violence traumatique sur le corps” that the initial coroner’s observance was dismissed. As any medical professional can tell you, it would be quite common, given the advanced state of putrification of the body (five months in frozen water), given the change in atmospheric conditions of moving the corps from the exterior to the interior autopsy chamber, it would not be uncommon for such “marques” to disappear or go unnoticed.

Most slanderous is M. Beaulieu’s comment about the toxicology results:

It is true that the body of Theresa Allore was found with underclothes only. That fact alone does not establish that she was murdered. Other explanations come to mind. Also, it is true that the toxicology report found no sign of drug use. That fact alone does not establish that she was murdered. The autopsy was done in APRIL 1979! (Beaulieu’s underline and exclamation point)

IVAC, you cannot have it both ways. You cannot talk out of both sides of your mouth. You cannot, on the one hand, vouch for the medical professionalism of pathologists in 1979 when you dismiss “marques of strangulation” noted by a coroner, and then argue - when the facts are not convenient for you - that toxicological data is not to be trusted, implying drug use (be careful, the slander laws in your country are much different from mine, and I am presently considering a civil suit).

Further, if “Other explanations come to mind”, then I have a right to hear them.

I hereby formally request of IVAC and the Surete du Quebec that they reveal to me what other possible probable explanations there are – other than murder – in the death of Theresa Allore.

And here we come to the heart of the matter. The hypothesis of murder is based almost solely on circumstantial evidence – that is true. There is no wound, there is no weapon, there is no witness. When you read about this case, or when you are told of the facts, you could be lead to other conclusions, but when you see it with your own eyes – as I have seen – there is only one conclusion. Theresa was not found in the “Coaticook River” it is a water bog – an area impenetrable, except to someone who wanted to hide a body. You don’t walk to this place, you are taken there. Students don’t take you there, someone dumps you there – they strip you of your identity and they leave you there, disposing of the evidence later. You don’t disappear at six o’clock on a Friday night, telling everyone that you are going to study and then mysteriously go to some party – where no one sees you – and get dumped by friends who panic and somehow, phenomenally all manage to keep a secret for 26 years. You are picked up hitchhiking, taken to a secluded place, asked to strip – resist - then suddenly have the life strangled out of you and are dumped in a secluded area.

That is what happened. That is what former investigator Leo Hamel believes. It is what Surete du Quebec investigators Michel Tanguay, Eric Latour, and Norman Kelly believe. It is what private investigator, now deceased, Robert Beullac believed. It is what Kim Rossmo believes, it is what I believe. It is what any investigator worth his salt understands to have happened.

Now you have, again, made me suffer the indignity of having to walk down this road again, of having to explain myself… do you understand now why victims like me are so frustrated, and angry and tired?

Please accept this appeal and consider my arguments. Use good judgment in forming your opinion, and return your answer in a prompt fashion.

1 For the purposes of your letter, I take it that “killed” equates to “murder” (in English these words are very different, but let it be so).2 I strongly suspect that the Surete du Quebec does not currently have the expertise to understand the criminology tools of behavioral science and geographic profiling, having only recently (one year ago) bothered to invest the resources in training two officers in such techniques. This is a start, but unfortunately, the Surete du Quebec is playing “catch-up” with the rest of the world. Further, the Surete du Quebec must invest considerable resources in initiating a “Cold case” unit.

On April 13th 1979, the body of Theresa Allore was found in a branch of the Coaticook River, near Compton. She was last seen on November 3rd 1978 and her disappearance was brought to the attention of the Police on November 10th 1978.

"A crime victim, for the purposes of this act, is any person killed or injured in Quebec:

a) by reason of the act or omission of any other person occuring in or resulting directly from the commission of an offence the description of which correspon ds to the criminal offence mentioned in the schedule to this act;".

The petitioner, a brother of Theresa Allore, claims that she was murdered. On his application for benefits he does refer to a coroner's note in the following words: "elle aurait des marques de srtangulation".

The first question is in relation to the delay for making the claim. In view of the special circumstances of the case, the undersigned is ready to assume that the petitioner made his claim within the year of his knowledge of the fact that the (Quebec) Crime Victims Compensation Act could have some application in relation to Theresa Allore's death in the Province of Quebec in November 1978. I can agree that John Allore made the claim without delay after he did succeed to convince the Surete du Quebec to review investigation.

The official police report received by the Commission do mention that the disappearance of Theresa Allore was first brought to the attention of the police. Six months later, the body was found by a North Hatley resident in the Coaticook River. She was half-naked ("un corps a moitie nu"). The identification was made later (Surete du Quebec, file 113-790413-001). The nature of the "evenement" is: "Mort suspecte".

The Commission is informed that there was indeed a reopening of the police investigation following some informations about a possible "suspect"; IF indeed the murder HYPOTHESIS had some merit. We are informed that the first part of the investigation in 1978 allowed the police to learn that the day before her disappearance, Theresa Allore was at a party with other students, that party involving the consumption of narcotics.

The police information is clear about the fact that, without a confession from THE "suspect" that he killed Theresa Allore, the CAUSE of the death of Theresa Allore would stay unknown. A sexual assault and/or a murder would stay a HYPOTHESIS, that being founded upon the conclusion of a Washington, D.C. profiler, Kim Rossmo that Theresa Allore was the victim of a serial killer.

On his application for benefits, the petitioner refers to an April 13th 1979 "Declaration du coroner" where we can read: "Suivant les informations obtenues des enqueteurs, elle (Theresa Allore) aurait des marques de strangulation". (I underline). However, the report of the autopsy made on April 14th 1979 do conclude... "adsence de trace evidente de violence traumatique sur le corps...". (Theresa Sourour, pathologiste, rapport medico-legal du 27 avril 1979, dossier: 02674 - so, the mention about those possible "marques de strangulation" was put aside as unsubstantiated the very next day and consequently, IS NOT part of the medical evidence in this file). The report and verdict of the coroner was issued on January 6th 1983. It concludes: "mort violente de nature indeterminee" and "Le deces n'est imputable a un crime de qui que ce soit, ni a la negligence de personne; aucun crime ne l'a accompagne ou precede". At the end of his report, the coroner was cautious enough to write, "Si de nouvelles informations etaient soumises et un nouveau rapport d'enqute depose, ce dossier sera repouvert pour adjudication et decision finale si des preuves pertinentes sont apportees".

Up until these days of February 2005, there was no other verdict from the coroner. The police information (got as recently as February 11th 2005 by the undersigned) received from the Surete du Quebec still concludes: "... les causes et circonstances du deces de Theresa Allore n'ont pu etre determinees et elles ne le sont toujours pas malgre le fait que ce dossier est toujours actif a notre niveau.".

The Commission concludes that it has not been shown to ITS SATISFACTION that Theresa Allore was the victim of a criminal act. There is no preponderance of probabilities (the applicable rule of eveidence) that Theresa Allore was killed (It is true that the body of Theresa Allore was found with underclothes only. That fact alone does not establish that she was murdered. Other explanations come to mind. Also, it is true that the toxicology report found no sign of drug use. That fact alone does not establish that she was murdered. The autoptsy was done in APRIL 1979!

CONSEQUENTLY, DESPITE THE SYMPATHY FOR THE PETITIONER AND ALL HIS FAMILY THE CLAIM FOR BENEFITS IS DISMISSED.

Please contact us if you need more information about this decision for any other questions. You may request a review of this decision within 30 days of recieving this letter. Your request must be made in writing and sent to the following address:

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Listened to Diamond Dogs on the way into work this morning. Damn, in the wake of want's happened in this country in the last 3 1/2 years, this album - 30 years later - still sounds fresh.

I love Mike Garson's piano playing. And is that really Bowie on that grungy guitar throughout? (I always suspected it might be an uncredited Earl Slick)

Does anyone remember the tv ads for this? I was ten, and I remember they showed that weird cover of Bowie as a dog with rock-rock-rock-rock blaring right along.

This was one of Theresa's favorites. I had the room adjacent to T. Her bedroom was a study in contrasts. Decorated by my mom, it was all lavender pastels, real soft-focus 70s stuff. The record player was Theresa's dominion. She played it LOUD. Side one was a favorite. From the freaky Future Legend to the stomping title track, through the smoky-ballad trilogy of Sweet Thing / Candidate to the final drive of Rebel Rebel - a very nice set. Though in later years, these words always disturbed me:

We'll buy some drugs and watch a bandThen jump in the river holding hands

Jimmy Smith, 76, a jazz genius who for more than 40 years coaxed unlikely sounds of soul and jazz sophistication from an unlikely instrument, the Hammond B3 organ, was found dead Feb. 8 at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., by his manager, Robert Clayton. He apparently died in his sleep, though the cause of death was not immediately known.

Before Mr. Smith discovered the Hammond B3 in 1951, the organ got little respect from jazz artists, despite Fats Waller's virtuosity with the instrument. Fusing blues, R&B and gospel, Mr. Smith took the instrument where it had never gone before. As one reviewer said, he "turned the organ into almost an ensemble itself."

Jimmy Smith was designated a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the nation's highest honor in jazz.

He was the primary exponent of the infectious, hip-shaking "Philadelphia sound" of the B3, often found in the clubs of Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Jersey. He performed in various ensembles, from a trio of organ, jazz and drums to high-flying organ duels with his Philadelphia proteges, Jimmy McGriff and Joey DeFrancesco.

On Jan. 7, the National Endowment for the Arts designated Mr. Smith an NEA Jazz Master, the nation's highest honor in jazz.

"Jimmy Smith transformed the organ into a jazz instrument," NEA Chairman Dana Gioia told the Associated Press. "Jazz has lost a pioneering talent, not to mention a one-of-a-kind personality."

James Oscar Smith was born in Norristown, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia, to parents who were pianists. His father, who played stride piano, was his first teacher. (Most reference works give his date of birth as Dec. 8, 1925, but family members have said he was actually three years younger.)

He left school in his teens and joined the Navy, where he played piano and bass in a segregated band. When he was discharged in 1947, he used the GI Bill to attend Philadelphia's prestigious Hamilton and Ornstein schools of music, where he studied bass and piano. He also worked construction jobs and for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

In 1951, he joined Don Gardner's Sonotones, playing R&B piano. He began experimenting with the B3 and happened to catch the reigning organ king, Wild Bill Davis, at Club Harlem in Atlantic City.

"Bill had everything goin'," Mr. Smith told interviewer Pete Fallico in 1994. "He had the best stuff in those days, '50, '54, man. When you went to hear Bill, you could hear him down two blocks."

He told Fallico that he bought his first organ in 1954 and kept it in a Philadelphia warehouse while he played around with the instrument's possibilities. "I pulled out that third harmonic and there! The bulb lit up, thunder and lightning! Stars came out of the sky."

He made his New York debut at Small's Paradise in Harlem in January 1956 and signed with Blue Note Records shortly thereafter. His performance at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival also was a hit.

His first album, "A New Sound, a New Star: Jimmy Smith at the Organ," indeed introduced a new sound. He was dubbed the Incredible Jimmy Smith and is credited with being the first jazz organist to combine the blues-drenched sounds of R&B with the more sophisticated rhythms of bebop. Among the 30 albums he recorded for Blue Note -- including collaborations with Kenny Burrell, Art Blakey, Tina Brooks and others -- were the classic "The Sermon!" (1957) and "Back at the Chicken Shack" (1960).

In 1962, he moved to Verve Records, where he was known for his collaborations with guitarist Wes Montgomery and for his 1962 recording "Walk on the Wild Side," on the album "Bashin': The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith." He also toured extensively throughout the 1960s and 1970s.In the early 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he and his wife, Lola, opened Jimmy Smith's Supper Club in the San Fernando Valley. The club closed some years later. The couple moved to Scottsdale last year; Lola Smith died of cancer a few months later.

Mr. Smith recently recorded a studio album, "Legacy," at Concord Records with DeFrancesco. It is scheduled for release Tuesday. The pair had planned a national tour.

DeFrancesco, quoted in the Chicago Tribune, recalled that Miles Davis had proclaimed Mr. Smith "the eighth wonder of the world." For the past couple of years, DeFrancesco and Mr. Smith had been getting together every Sunday afternoon in a club near their homes for jam sessions that began attracting large crowds. "He went out at the top of his game," DeFrancesco said.

"He had a spirit and a sound that comes across, and there was nothing like it," he added. "He was full of fire and soul, just the complete musician."

I have just received (this afternoon) the answers to all my remaining questions. These answers have been sent to me by the Sûreté du Québec. The decision will be signed next tuesday (February 15th, 2005).

What could possibly be holding up a response to my claim? You told me in December it would not be long, well this is long.

Speak plain English (or French if that is your preference): When will I have my answer? Does your lack of response have something to do with Theresa's case not being solved? Is so, then say so.

Speak honestly. Don't lie, don't hide, don't evade. That is what you owe victims. You do not like the lack of respect I have shown to you? That's fine, because you have shown me no respect; you have not had the courtesy to answer a plain question.

Do you really think I feel threatened that you have informed an IVAC lawyer? I could care less. Do you think because I used disrespectful language that that gives you the right to deny answers to the "clients" (your word) you serve?

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Sometimes no news isn't good news. The Ottawa-based Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime has launched a study on how to help the families of victims of serious unsolved crimes.

"The greatest need they have is for information," said centre president Steve Sullivan. "What happened to their son, their daughter, their wife? It's hard to get on with healing when you're still wondering what happened."

The centre is asking victims of unsolved sexual assaults and the survivors of murdered and missing loved ones to respond to a survey and take part in a round-table discussion in Ottawa on March 4.

The centre launched the federally-funded study after searching for information about how to help victims of unsolved crimes. They came up empty.

That's no surprise to Carol Ann Johnson. Her daughter, Carrie Mancuso, was murdered in Ottawa in 1995. No one has been charged in the murder of the vivacious young woman, who worked in the sex trade.

An occasional phone call would have meant a lot: "It would have made me feel like a human being," Johnson said.

The key is finding ways cash and time-strapped investigators can put into practice, Sullivan said, adding families who may never get justice in court need ongoing support.

The case of Karen Caughlin illustrated the need to help families of victims. The 14-year-old was dropped off at a girlfriend's house on a March morning in 1974. Her body was found in a ditch near Petrolia later the same day.

The murder remains unsolved, "and there was a 25-year period when the family never heard from police," Sullivan said.

Visit crcvc.ca for more information on how to take part in the survey and discussion.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Please excuse the tenor of my language below, but your agency has pushed me to this level of frustration. In October of 2004 we spoke at the Plaidoyer conference in Montreal and you assured me you would look into the matter of my claim for the death of my sister, Theresa Allore.

M. Beaulieu's justification below, that, "The Commission's investigator gave [him] explanations about the delay and [he is] satisfied with his answers" is an insult. How dare he hold me up without providing me with the explanations and the answers. How dare you treat the knowlwedge of my sister's death like some guarded secret that only you can observe.

I have waited 25 plus 1 year. I do not think it too much to ask that this matter be settled now. I - and many other Quebec citizens - are tired of being toyed with by IVAC, we are tired of being treated like 2nd class citizens.

I would like an answer by the first of next week - yes or no - are you going to honor my claim.
I expect you to take care of this situation immediately,

I need to know the state of my case. This is taking entirely too long. It has been over a year now and I have had no response on my claim. Even you must admit that this is absurd.

You must know by now that I only did this to call-out the utter futility of IVAC. You are an ineffectual agency that must be reformed.

The more you stall, the more I will publicly expose you.

It is in your best interest to respond now. On March 12th, my sister's case will be profiled in an hour long program on CTV's W-FIVE. After that program airs I will be bombarded with requests from the press. The only thing I will talk about is my frustration with IVAC and the lack of response I personally received from you.

You created this situation, not me.

John Allore

PS: you wonder why victims are such a pain-in-the-ass? I think I am justified in telling you to go fuck yourself.

Sir,I am sorry for the unexpected delays. I have not yet received the answers to the precise questions. The Commission's investigator gave me explanations about thedelay and I am satisfied with his answers. It will allow me to make a decisionwith complete evidence.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Key and Dalzell Parties, you should read this

Contents of the message sent to my blog post on Quebec beer strike:

I'm not sure if you're still writing anymore about the Andrew Dalzell case with Key, but I just resently, actually only last night, found out that he was a murderer, or is on trial for it. I was shocked. I knew him very well, or thought I did. I'm not certain of anything anymore. I was just speechless. I have found out ever since I stopped talking to him months and months ago, about a year ago, that he's a compulsive liar, a huge jerk, and a few other things that I don't think I sound even type up on a site but you get the idea. After being completely shocked at these stories and other articles I've read over the past day/ rest of last night, I doubt if it was the Andrew I know/knew. But after your description of the house, the drawings, the medieval weaponary, I'm almost positive it's the one I know. ...Andrew Douglas Dalzell.

It seems like almost everything he's ever told me was a lie, but I never in my wildest imagination thought he was a murderer. I slept with my pocket knife under my pillow last night and it took my hours to finally go to sleep and not wake up every ten minutes. It's scaring... knowing a guy who could kill someone. Just reading your posts and the description of the house, it shocks me. He never came off as someone to do something like this, but I guess I was wrong. Then again, it's hard to be certain about everyone all the time. I'm just thankful I never met with him like I wanted to for so long.

After typing this all up and probably getting anyone who's reading this some more excitement, "wow, someone who knows the actual murderer... tell me more." I'd like to stop and tell everyone and anyone who is reading this that right now, I am only 15 years old, and I have never met Andrew Dalzell face to face. To me, he was known as Daz, a nickname, and I've only met him through Yahoo Messenger. I was 'with him'/dating in a sense...I won't go into details and humiliate myself even more by showing how stupid I was to even believe I word he said, but I'll just say I thought things were serious with him. He was 27 when we were 'together'. I had just turned 14 when I met him. He seemed like a nice guy... This online world is so uncertain at times. I've talked to his 'wife' or so she claims to be. I doubt it was even her. It was probably just him pretending to be anyone who would actually love him. But then again, my friend had seen her in a chatroom just yesterday (2/6/05) and had talked to her about him. Either she was lieing too or there were just more things that he lied about to me...and that she lied about to me.

This is all just so confusing. But either way, someone was on her screen name, and the only people it could be are Andrew himself, (I'm not positive how far in the case things are, if he's in jail right now or anything), or it was really her, the pitiful fool...still listening to his lies. Whichever is the truth, I don't know, but I've talked to him for months, many many many months, and I was blind to everything. I just hope right now that he's found guilty and rots in jail for the rest of his sorry life. Thank you for your time and the information on this site. I'm sorry about your sister and Miss Key. May they rest in peace and be happy where ever they are now.

Sunday, February 06, 2005

MONTREAL -- Liquor stores are expected to reopen soon in Quebec after an agreement was reached yesterday to end a work stoppage that has lasted three months and had an impact on most of the province's residents.

Impact? No hockey, no booze? Is anyone tracking the crime and suicide rates?

The union representing 3,800 striking Quebec liquor workers said that it had reached a tentative deal with the Quebec Liquor Corp. The union, affiliated with the Confederation of National Trade Unions, said in a statement the two sides reached the agreement in principle earlier yesterday. The workers will vote on the deal Tuesday, the union said.

Ya, here's the negotiation; get-the-fuck back to work boys, before the whole province goes postal.

"The negotiating committee will recommend that this agreement in principle, and the back-to-work protocol, be accepted at an executive meeting and at the general meeting," the union said. Union leaders had recommended against previous offers from the liquor corporation. Details of the agreement in principle were not released.

The key point in the dispute was scheduling for part-time workers, and tensions increased as the strike dragged on.

Hey eh... We get our Tims breaks too, ya know?

Pickets dumped 20 Christmas trees in front of a Montreal store last month.

Huh?

Several hundred demonstrators also formed a human chain around the liquor agency's Montreal headquarters last month and pickets showed up at the homes of some executives. Vandals have also broken the windows of several outlets outside Montreal and three pickets were arrested for throwing a stink bomb and for assault.

Can someone give me a scientific definition of a "stink bomb".

Fifty stores in Quebec were kept open by managers. But the result was long lines and frustrated customers in the province that drinks more wine than anywhere else in the country, and has among most discerning drinkers.

We want our Bordeaux, tabernac!

Quebec accounts for about 40 per cent of all the wine drunk in Canada. The average imbiber in Ontario drank 11 litres of wine last year; in Quebec, it was 17 litres.

hic!

Bottles of wine were still available at corner stores, but such dépanneurs normally stock only low-end vintages.

Can you spell Manischewitz?

Some newspapers and television stations had fun with the new need to buy from dépanneurs. Some newspapers published handy tear-out guides with quotes from wine experts above photos of different vintages. One local television station even brought a sommelier into a dépanneur to sample the wares.

Ya, really funny... THE LIFE-BLOOD'S RUNNING OUT OF ME!

The strike became the main talking point for Quebeckers, and resulted in tensions when many Quebec residents crossed the picket lines to enter management-run stores. That left many of the unionized store employees wondering what ever happened to the province's vaunted sense of social solidarity.

"Don’t cry oh, mothers, it's not for nothing
Above the shipyard a flag of black ribbons
For bread, for freedom, for a new Poland
Janek Wisniewski"

The work stoppage was expected to hit hard at the bottom line of the government-owned liquor commission -- it occurred over the holiday season, which accounts for as much as 40 per cent of its $2.7-billion in annual sales.

I WAS SOBER FOR CHRISTMAS? CHRIST SAVE ME!!!!!

One of the beneficiaries was the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, that saw sales rise.

I try to keep this blog and my work seperate (I work in the Finance department for the City of Durham). But this is one time I'm gonna break the rule. There is a nice article in this morning's Herald Sun about Durham's new City Manager, Patrick Baker and how he has improved morale of City employees. I would just like to echo that Patrick Baker has always been a fine man, and he is a great leader for Durham. PATRICK BAKER, YOU HAD ME AT "HELLO"!

DURHAM -- As Durham's new city manager, Patrick Baker is getting used to seeing his picture in the newspaper.

But there was a day early last month when seeing his photo in ink sent him to the county jail.
It happened the day after a young man accused of shooting an 18-year-old woman at a downtown nightclub turned himself in to police.

Two stories in the newspaper that day painted starkly different pictures.

One featured Baker, smiling slightly in the photo, talking about efforts to close a downtown intersection.

The other was about the young man's arrest. Accompanying it was a police mugshot of the 20-year-old with frizzy hair, half-closed eyes and a scowl.

"There was something sort of about my picture, with kind of a grin on my face and being the manager, and his picture with hair all over the place and not a really happy face, and that just sort of struck a chord with me," Baker said.

The next day, a Sunday, the then-interim city manager drove his Range Rover to the jail to learn what allegedly prompted the man to fire several shots into MK's House of Jazz and R&B.
What Baker found was a scared gang member who had never met his father and already had two children.

Nobody asked Baker to go to the jail. It was a trip, he said, he felt he had to make.

"As a community, we've got to engage these kids because we're losing them left and right," Baker said. "I can double the police force if people want me to, but it's not going to help. We're still going to have the same kind of problems."

The City Council hired Baker as city manager on Jan. 14.

For five months, he had filled in for Marcia Conner, who resigned after a rocky three years. The offer to be interim manager came the day before Baker's 37th birthday -- a "mentally exhausting" day spent helping the council negotiate Conner's severance package in his previous role as assistant city attorney.

As they tied up the loose ends, council members told Baker they wanted to talk about one more thing. Grinning, they invited him to sit down, and asked if he was interested in the interim position. Then they began grilling him -- what was his vision for the city, what did he hope to accomplish?

"It was one of the most surreal moments of my life. There were times during the interview process that I would tap my foot on the floor just to get some sort of sensation," Baker said. "I was just trying to hold it together."

Lack of experience seemed a strike against Baker moving from interim to permanent manager. But several council members said they had noticed a boost in City Hall morale during Baker's temporary stint.

"The change of atmosphere in the organization ... caused the council to pick me," Baker said.

People who know Baker say he has a way of putting others at ease.

Baker points to his small-town upbringing. He was born in Camp Lejeune in 1967, the son of a Marine and a homemaker. Eventually, they moved off base into the nearby Havelock community, population 22,000.

It was a friendly place where everyone knew each other, Baker said. That "small-town mentality" is helping him build trust today with city employees, he said.

"Whoever he's talking to, he'll get his full attention," Anthony Baker said. "Whether it's a secretary in his office or the mayor, neither one of them is going to get more attention because of who they are."

The youngest of four children, Patrick Baker calls himself "the proverbial 'oops' baby" because he was born 10 years after his two brothers and sister. Being the youngest, however, had its advantages, he said.

With all of his siblings out of the house by the time he was 9, Baker had the perk of receiving all his parents' attention.

Neither of his parents graduated from college, but they emphasized education -- and it worked. The four Baker children sport nine degrees among them.

His oldest brother, Scott, was a family doctor before dying of a heart attack in 1998 at age 45. Anthony is a professor at Campbell University's law school, and sister Marie Watson is an elementary school teacher in Raleigh.

Baker met his future wife, Rae Ann, when she moved into his neighborhood just before they began the seventh grade. But they didn't become friends until both started playing tennis at Havelock High School.

By their junior year, they were best friends. As seniors, they decided to trade in their friendship for romance.

"He confessed that he was more nervous than I was that it might not last," Rae Ann said. "He was worried about taking that plunge."

The high school sweethearts continued seeing each other while Baker attended Wake Forest University and Rae Ann went to UNC Greensboro. They married when he finished law school.

Baker moved to Durham in 1993 to work at the downtown law firm of Poe, Hoof & Reinhardt doing insurance defense and personal injury work. Now he can see his former employer from the window in his corner office on the second floor of City Hall.

The manager's office has become a second home for Baker. He estimates he works nearly 75 hours a week.

Because he's not a morning person, he usually works late, sometimes staying past midnight. He tries to slip out of the office early enough to read to his children -- Griffin, 6, and Chloe, 4 -- before tucking them into bed.

"When we do prayers at night, they always say, 'Thank you for daddy's new job,'" Rae Ann said.
On some nights when Baker can't make it home for dinner, his family will haul takeout food to his office and pop "Shrek 2" or "Tarzan" into the DVD player hooked up to the projection screen in his conference room.

And when Baker needs to work on Sundays, he'll occasionally take along Griffin and Chloe to give a break to his wife, who is a stay-at-home mom.

"We've had to be creative with time, and we've really had to guard it," Baker said. "It's a constant challenge."

Rae Ann plans to put a rug in the corner of the office to create a play area, complete with toy- and book-filled baskets.

When City Council members met in August to write a classified ad detailing the manager's position, they made sure to include the word "challenging."

Deserved or not, the reputation of Durham's city government isn't the best. But Baker said negative labels didn't keep him from applying for a job that some people wouldn't go near.

"I really believe in the organization," Baker said. "I wouldn't have taken this position if I didn't believe in the organization and people here. This just plays into, sort of, my strength -- making order out of disorder."

For the past few months, Baker has visited city employees to shake hands and give a short speech about taking ownership and pride in city government.

"When you take an active ownership in it, you take pride in the organization, and you don't want to see some of the problems that have popped up in the past," Baker said.

He seems to have won over a city staff hardened by Conner's more abrasive style. When Baker recently kicked off the city's annual budgeting process by telling employees they had a lot of work ahead, they burst into applause.

"I think he's the real deal, the genuine article when it comes to caring about Durham," said Assistant City Attorney Sherri Zann Rosenthal.

But Baker acknowledges it will take more than a morale boost for Durham to rebound from a string of scandals. Then there's Durham's other image problem: crime.

When he was named city manager, Baker made crime his top priority -- reducing it, and changing the perception that Durham is an overly dangerous place.

His answer doesn't necessarily lie in putting more police on the streets. He says he favors fighting crime through neighborhood revitalization and stepping up efforts to enforce the city housing codes and zoning ordinances.

He also believes in the "broken window" theory -- that crime increases in blighted neighborhoods because criminals think no one sees or cares.

"I think that we spend way too much time focusing on the Police Department to solve all of society's ills, and all they're doing is catching the ones that act outside of our norms and sending them to jail," Baker said. "And then the court system sends them back at some point in time and we catch them doing it again. I just don't see the cycle ending."

One of Baker's goals is to increase youth programs and other opportunities for young people. He wonders what might have happened if the man he visited in jail last month had had more choices while growing up.

"There were several failures in this kid's life that go way beyond anything the police could have done," Baker said. "All the police could do was catch him and send him to jail. Where do we go from here?"

Saturday, February 05, 2005

The FBI said Friday it has shut down an e-mail system that it uses to communicate with the public because of a possible security breach.

The bureau is investigating whether someone hacked into the www.fbi.gov e-mail system, which is run by a private company, officials said.

"We use these accounts to communicate with you folks, view internet sites, and conduct other non-sensitive bureau business such as sending out press releases," Special Agent Steve Lazarus, the FBI's media coordinator in Atlanta, said in an e-mail describing the problem.

The FBI computer system that is used for case files, classified and sensitive information, and internal communications is unaffected, Lazarus said.

The bureau is in the process of switching its e-mail accounts, officials said.

Lawmakers and the Justice Department's inspector general have criticized the FBI for taking too much time and spending too much money to upgrade its computer systems. A $170 million project, Virtual Case File, may have to be scrapped because it is outdated and inadequate, FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged Thursday in testimony on Capitol Hill.

I've been meaning to make these posts to coincide with their dates of release 26 years ago, but I got a little behind. Nevertheless, here is an article that was published in the French, Tribune in February of 1979. By this time, Theresa had been missing for 3 months and the case had gone cold (My comments in bold).

More about the clothes: Ya, I remember this, my mother got confused about what was Theresa's, what she owned. No one thought to consider that some of the confusion might have generated from the fact that Theresa had been living on her own for over a year (ask my mom what I was wearing at the end of my first year of college and I guarantee she would have got it wrong - my room was mostly stocked with other people's clothes.So, hypothesizing Theresa had run away based on the dubious assumption that clothes were missing was really kinda dumb.

Okay, this one's a little more difficult- a female student reported that Theresa had confided to her that she was unhappy at Champlain and planned to run away. I don't know who suggested this, all I can say is Theresa was pretty independent - she had previously dropped out of Vanier College. She chose to come back to school; had she wantedto leave again, no one would have stopped her - there would have been no motive to take this action in secret.

Ho, ho, ho... this one is really important, and I guarantee it will come up when W-Five airs the hour-long show on Theresa in March. Currently, the Surete du Quebec abdocate themselves of responsiility in the disappearance of Theresa because they maintain they were not brought into the investigation until after Theresa's body was found. The people referred to above are Leo Hamel and his constable from the Lennoxville police, Roch Gaudreault from the Quebec Provincial Police (the Surete), and the private investigator my father hired, Robert Bullac.This information from February 1st, 1979 clearly establishes that the Surete du Quebec was involved in the investigation long before the body was found. Further, Gauldreault was the investigator on the cases of Louise Camirand and Manon Dube; it is hard to believe he didn't see the possibililty that there might have been a connection between these women's deaths and Theresa's disappearance. The question is, why didn't he pursue that more aggressively?

Hamel's looking at the possibilities of a runaway or an abduction. Curious, this is the first time I noticed the part about Weedon. Weeden is an area East of Sherbrooke / Compton (Camirand and Dube were found West of the Sherbrooke area). The police got a tip that Theresa's body would be found around Weedon. The only thing I can think of is there were two bodies found with gunshot wounds in the Lennoxville area in late 1978. The two offenders were apprehended and it was discovered that they and the victims were from the Weedon area.

Friday, February 04, 2005

The things that drives you crazyYa, just when you think it's gone into remission, stuff like this...

So I had this dream last night. I get a letter from an old friend of Theresa's. She claims Theresa never died. She was part of some cult of 2,500 students who left Canada in 1978 and started a colony in Barbados. This friend claims to have seen Theresa at a Frank Sinatra concert in the Caribbean in 1979 (Richard Nixon was in the audience too - whatever-the-fuck that has to do with anything.)

As proof, the friend offers up information about a bank account in Theresa's name in Barbados that has seen regular activity for the past 26 years.

In a blow to Access to Information, Quebec's Minister of Public Security, Jacques Chagron has denied a request by the Boisvenu family to view the parole file of Hugo Bernier - sentenced in the murder of their daughter, Julie Boisvenu.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Sorry for no posts...

I've spent the last two days in the organization of the North Carolina Local Government Investment Association's semi-annual conference (yes, there is such a thing, and - yes - I DO have a life outside this blog).